1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to a method of preparation of blasting compositions and, more specifically, to the preparation of liquid explosive compositions from sensitized nitroparaffins at the blasting site which may be utilized in numerous applications requiring personal safety and high blasting efficiency.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
There have been numerous attempts to provide explosive or blasting compositions, for industrial and military applications, that exhibit high blasting efficiencies with a minimum risk of injury to the users. Factors such as detonation sensitivity, shipment and storage of the compositions have tended to reduce the number of practical compositions that are commercially available. Conventional shaped charge explosives, such as HMX and RDX, are relatively expensive and are limited in their usefulness because they are solids.
Attempts to prepare liquid or semi-liquid blasting compositions from nitroalkanes have met with some success as illustrated in: U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,060; U.S. Pat. No. 3,133,844; U.S. Pat. No. 3,242,022; U.S. Pat. No. 3,44,728; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,438. However, in each instance, the patented composition have been limited in its usefulness because it was either too complex or it contained undesirable ingredients from a cost or availability point of view, it was so sensitive that it had to be mixed on site from ingredients that were transported separately in special equipment or, because of its composition, it was not capable of yielding a reproducible smooth uniform detonation front.
In particular, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,438 contains a disclosure of compositions which are not as useful as the present invention because the compositions are solid, non-flowable, too complex and not reliable. The compositions require exceedingly expensive ingredients, contain relatively hazardous materials or, because of their sensitivities, they are less safe to use.
Furthermore, the prior art compositions such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,438 pertain to a gelled explosive which does not flow well and is, therefore, limited in use for handling small quantities of explosive such as sticks of dynamite. Gelled explosives are at a severe disadvantage when used in large quantities in atomic blast simulations or underground rock fracturing operations to release natural gas.
For large quantity usage, transportation hazards are encountered when mixed, non-gelled, liquid ingredients or compositions are involved. Thus, transportation of compositions separately is desirable with subsequent mixing on-site as a solution to the transportation hazard problem. However, in this latter instance, difficulties are incurred if the separate compositions are not combined according to specific quantity limitations such as the present invention sets forth. Thus, there is still a need for a new low cost, non-hazardous, efficient and reliable liquid explosive composition that can be transported in separate ingredients and blended on-site and used without special equipment.